Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-07-28
THE INDIAN MEDICINE MAN.
Wonderful Feats Of Jugglery-wrestlinG
with the Demons of Disease.

does not practce with white men 5 meul-
cine, he evidently can do much through
the powerful influence of the beliefs
which actuate his subjects as well as him
self. The following declaration is GER
tainly remarkable:
II have known neuralgias, rheuma-
tisms, fevers, dysenteries, diaTheas,
agues, paralysis, cystitis, ETC., to be per-
manently relieved or benefited; tumors to
disappear; commissions controlled or pro-
duced; persons to become simultaneously
stricken with blindness or palsy; rendered
oblivious to pain and torture; deprived Of
muscular power and made as rigid as
marble: to drop as if dead and pulseless;
rise and walk when an instant before in
capable of the slightest exertion-all by
the conjurations and incantations of med
icine men. Also, l am personally con-
yersant with the prediction of events in
the far future exactly as they subse-
quently occurred, and with %scrupulous
fidelity to details; the movements Of per-
sons and individuals to be described in
minutia who had never been seen, much
less heard of, and who We're hundreds OF
miles away at the time. Moreover, l
have witnessed feats of legerdemain, Jug
glery and necromancy, exhibited in broad
daylight, under the full glare of the sun,
as well as at night, without parapherna-
Liza or mystic aids, that would puzzle the
most astute professor Of civilized magic;
some, to be sure, susceptible of explana-
ton under physical and psychical laws,
and others not SO readily disposed Of, save
rs optical and aural delusions and tricks
of the Imagination"
Noise and odor are the means by which
the medicine man operates upon the
demons which afllict the sick man. The
patient is shut up in a close and sitting
atmosphere and submitted to combina-
tons of sounds and smells calculated TO
drive the most obstreperous Of foul devils
to the remote confines Of ~space-odors SC
very internal and nauseous that even dogs
are made i'll thereby"
When the medicine man is called, he
proceeds to business at once. The dag
nosis does not bother him, for all diseases
have a similar origin, and, by means of
the amulets in his medicine bag, he can
Immediately find out which is the special
foul fiend he has to deal with, as well
as discern the proper treatment. Only
one opinion is possible; the number and
malignancy of the demons at work in a
given case is the only thing to be de-
terminel.
If possible. the incarnation is put off
until night, because the spirits are more
eas ly brought under discipline in dark
ness. The proceedings usually begin
with a monotonous chant that rises and
falls with abrupt infections. In this
the demons are alternately coaxed, hui
mored or threatened, and in every way
abjured to leave their present habitation
and resume their proper forms. In the
meantime the assistants keep up a run
ming accompaniment with drums and rat
ties made from gourds and parchment.
Gradually the songs become louder and
more violent, the drums and rattles in
crease their din, higher and higher,
shriller and still more shrill becomes the
voice of the c~onjurer, until it becomes a
frantic, piercing shrek, and the din is a
pandemonium. altogether fiendish, Graz
ing and e~xcruciating beyond comprehen-
sion. Finally, utterly exhausted, the
chief performer, black in the face and
streaming perspiration from every pore,
pauses and-eats. All present fall to and
fill themselves to repletion. This per-
Torrance is repeated again and again,
while the smoke and fumes of burning
gunpowder, fish entrails, bears hair,
parchment, fur and other odorous sub
stances too disgusting to mention fill the
lodge 10 suffocation with smells that can
fairly he felt. During the interval the
patient is blown upon with the breath, ths
painful parts sucked with the mouth, or
gashed with knives or flints, so that al
imitation of wet cupping a be practiced
by means of a bison horn from which the
air has been exhausted by suction. To
complete the expulsion of the demon, and
to keep him away, the incarnation ends
with a discharge of firearms through the
lodges and all around, and this is some
times kept up for hours after the medi.
cine man has taken his departure.
Sometimes the demon shows but little
strength and is driven away quite easily,
but a strong and malignant individual
may require a grand council Of practi-
TONERS and several weeks Of efforts like
those just described before the patient
gets well or dies-in other words, before
the demons prove amenable to discipline
or show themselves too strong. Unfor-
tunately, in spite of all precautions, the
demon frequently returns; there is q re-
lapse; or, as the unbeliever might say,
the nervous excitement and impression
upon the imagination wear off, and the
same old conditions are found to be pres
ent as before. This, Of course, requires
more incantations, until at last nature
comes TO the sick mans aid or death
closes the scene. In the latter event the
practitioner is not blamed. IL is TO be
expected that n demon Of any power or
reputation would endeavor to outwit the
medicine men and come back with every
opportunity, and the more powerful its
manifestations when it does come back
the greater the evidence Of abilit, ON the
part Of the practitioner. Besides, the
n first in possession may have called in
others 10 help him defy the medicine
men, or the supreme spirit himself may,
have taken matters into his own hands
and interfered with all efforts 10 save the
patient because the latter has broken
some VOW made years before, perhaps.
At all events, the result was inevitable,
for the savage isa firm believer in fate
Globe Democrat.